Only Thing
by JeanieBeanie33
Summary: A series of sortof drabbles as in, more than 100 words. Originally made to be only three, but even I don’t know what’s going to pop into my head. Pairings: WE, and slight JE if it tickles your fancy.
1. Only Way

Disclaimer: Not mine. If I did, I wouldn't hog it all so much like the current owner. :glares at a certain mouse:

Summary of Overall Story: A series of sort-of drabbles (as in, more than 100 words). Originally made to be only three, but even I don't know what's going to pop into my head.

Summary of Chapter: "He'd rubbed off on her after all." Perhaps slight J/E, if it tickles your fancy. 200 words, according to Microsoft Word.

**Only Way**

'_It's after you, not the ship. It's not us.'_

Who would've guessed that dear Lizzie would do something that was so like him. He wondered if she would regret it. Maybe she would. Maybe she would even miss him.

'_But this is the only way, don't you see?'_

Yes. It was the only way she could make sure he did this without him having the chance to turn back and doom them all; so he wouldn't be able to do the wrong thing. Maybe that's why he wasn't making a sound. Maybe it was because he couldn't say anything, because her way of tricking him had shocked and impressed him so much he was speechless. Then again, maybe he wasn't shocked. Maybe they were alike for reasons even he hadn't thought of.

'_I'm not sorry.'_

He knew she wasn't sorry. She'd been curious about him, about what he'd taste like, about what freedom tasted like – but she didn't want to know if _he_ would be curious enough, if her heroic fantasies of him would be shattered. So she'd taken her chance.

There was only one word that would do her actions justice.

'_**Pirate.**'_

He'd rubbed off on her after all.


	2. Only Time

Disclaimer: Not mine. If I did, I wouldn't hog it all so much like the current owner. :frowns at a certain mouse:

Summary of Chapter: 'She had to kiss him. She didn't know why – did she? Yes, she did.' Maybe slight J/E, but only if you're _very_ devoted. 140 words according to MW.

**Only Time**

She had to kiss him. She didn't know _why_ – did she? Yes, she did.

Curiosity. She was curious about him. That wasn't all, though. She did it for Will, to save him and the remainders of the crew.

It was also because she loved him, Captain Jack Sparrow.

She loved him, thought not in _that_ way. She loved him as a friend, a mentor – an escape, from the restricted world she was doomed for, should she choose Will (and she had). She loved him the way a child loves their dreams. She loved him because he was a symbol of the freedom that she desired and the adventure she wished she could have, as much as she wanted.

Most of all, she loved him because the one time he needed to escape most was the only time he came back.


	3. Only Reason

Disclaimer: Not mine. If I did, I wouldn't hog it all so much like the current owner. :frowns at a certain mouse:

Summary of Chapter: Despite killing him, when it came to Will, Elizabeth was the key to saving Captain Jack Sparrow. Slight hint of foreshadowing, maybe, if you dislike Will. _Seemingly_ one-sided Willabeth. 185-words, according to MW.

**Only Reason**

_She'd kissed him – _how could she have kissed him_? She was engaged to me!_

Then again, I am not the first fiancé that she's left for another man, am I?

'…_took your dearly beloved, all to hisself?' 'Unfortunately, Mr. Turner…he's right!'_

Despite all of that, as impossible as it seems, my love is still hers. She is breaking my heart and making me wish I was dead – and yet, I still love her. If she asked for me to forgive her right then, I would have. Well, maybe not _right_ then, but eventually I would have.

But she doesn't ask, and so I don't give. To me, it looks like she'd once again moved on to another man. It looked like she loved someone else.

In the end, my love for Elizabeth is not only strong enough to let her go: it is also greater than my newfound hatred for Jack.

That was the only reason – _she_ was only reason – that, even though he's the cause for her breaking my heart, I'm still going to save Jack Sparrow.

'_If there's anything that could be done…'

* * *

_

Not as proud of it as I am of the other two, but it'll do for now. What do you think?


	4. Only One

Disclaimer: Not mine. If I did, I wouldn't hog it all so much like the current owner. :frowns at a certain mouse:

Summary of Chapter: In the end, Will was the only one that would do for Elizabeth. After all, Jack says so. More of a vignette than a drabble, but still…320 words, according to MW.

**Only One**

_Two days_. Two days of furtive looks, unsure thoughts, and emotional pain. Two days of sullen silence and burning eyes.

Captain Jack Sparrow was bloody sick of it.

He grabbed an unsuspecting Elizabeth and threw her into his cabin, locking the door. Then he went in search of William, which was harder than he'd thought because the whelp was avoiding him like the plague. When he finally cornered him, he did it as casual as possible, politely (for Jack) requesting Will's presence by the bow. There they were left alone, because Jack had given orders for the crew to leave off until further notice. Even Barbossa kept away.

The momentous conversation (which was actually quite civil) went like this:

"Listen, whelp," Jack began. "I know that you saw Lizzie and me discovering what it tastes like." He ignored Will's glowering look that was somehow mixed with mystification (but as far as Jack was concerned, complexity was pure Will). "She's probably not told you, but that kiss we shared is the only reason I could think of that could keep you two from being lovey-dovey. You need to know, though, the reason she did it." There he stopped.

Will managed to stay silent for a total of seven seconds (which was five seconds longer than Jack thought he'd make).

"What?" he finally asked (or snapped, but Jack was willing to forgive him for it). "What is it?"

"Simple. So she could save you from that terrible leviathan of ole fish-face." If he wasn't Captain Jack Sparrow, he would've screamed out of frustration at Will's perplexed look.

"_What?_" Will managed to say. Whatever he thought Jack would say it wasn't that.

"It's because she loves you!" Jack burst out. "Even though I will never figure it out because you're so bloody different, somehow, you are the only one for her!"

Will and Elizabeth's marriage was presided over by Jack two weeks later.


	5. Only Love

Disclaimer: Dear friends, you can expect me to be an honest woman when I say I don't own PotC. Really, do you think I do:silence: I didn't think so. I just like to steal the lines.

Chapter Summary: Jack could never love just a woman, certainly never a wife. 125-word drabble according to MW. No pairing, unless you count Jack/Sea.

**Only Love**

Love? No. There was no way I could love Elizabeth. I could never love a woman, certainly never a wife.

Lizzie is wild, different (smart, beautiful, witty, brave), a pirate – but that was it. When you got down to it, she was just a governor's daughter-turned-pirate: _human_. She would never be enough, though, for me. I could try, oh yes, I could try. In the end, though, we would fall apart: she with a broken heart, me with a heavy one that another girl had gotten her heart broken by me. I do feel guilty about that, you know, and that's not just because I keep getting slapped either.

At times I feel like ole fish-face, because like him, my only love is the sea.


	6. Only Now

Disclaimer: A ruddy mouse owns PotC, can you believe it? I'd have a better use for honorable good men like James Norrington and Jack Sparrow than breaking their hearts/ruining their lives/killing them. We fan girls should unite and buy them from him, somehow….

Summary: Definitely a vignette (590 words). 'Only now there was no going back.' James Norrington-centric. Rated T, for slight language and dark thoughts.

**Only Now**

"It may interest you to know that I have on good authority that the _Black Pearl_ and everyone upon it have been killed."

_Good G-d, James hated his voice._

"Everyone, my Lord?" Respectful, as always – on the outside, anyway.

_No. Not Elizabeth. She was too young; not innocent, he _definitely _knew, but young. Young, headstrong, beautiful, courageous, witty, intelligent…James could go on and on._

"Yes. Even Miss Swann, I'm afraid." The tone was mocking, but James was oblivious. He wouldn't dare to notice, anyway.

_It couldn't be true. He'd never gotten to say good-bye, never gotten to fully resolve things with her…_

"El-Elizabeth?" Enter the loving and heartbroken father. Governor Swann had never been an especially brave man, but James did not hesitate to believe that he would travel to the ends of the earth for his daughter.

_It wasn't fair for him, either. Elizabeth was one of the few things the governor had left. He felt a rush of sympathy for the man that had been as close to a father as society would allow and who, once, had been his future father-in-law._

"I believe that is whom I referred to." Cruel boredom, this time. If there was only one wish in the world that would ever be fulfilled for James, he hoped, with feverish vehemence, it was that he could one day stick a sword through Beckett's gut.

_At least Sparrow isn't cruel – or wasn't, James supposed, feeling a brief pang of something that couldn't _possibly_ be sorrow. Morally lacking, childish, and thoughtless at times, certainly, but not out-and-out cruel. Unlike other pirates James had come across…_

"It was taken down by Captain Jones's beast, the Kraken." Beckett sounded almost joyful, but that was because he couldn't show emotion. As soon as they left he would probably be salsa-dancing on the table as Mercer played the bongos.

…_unlike Beckett._

"You fiend, you dishonorable _bastard_!" Weatherby Swann dove at Beckett, trying to strangle him. James watched as he was dragged away a minute later by guards standing by, a hint of something apart from stony disapproval in his eyes.

_Is it wrong to feel jealous?_

"Unfortunate," Beckett mused, observing James closely from behind his desk, somehow looking imposing.

_Beckett saw the glint, too. Naturally – the man watched for emotion like a hawk did for a mouse. There were times James felt like a mouse, come to think of it._

"Then again, everyone has a weakness. Poor Mr. Swann's was his dishonorable bint of a daughter."

_She had more honor than you have._

"Unfortunately, he is not the first one with such a similar weakness, though, is he, Admiral?"

_Rage; suppressed, as usual. What other choice did he have?_

"Perhaps, my Lord, perhaps."

_There was no other choice. He could not go back to his lawless, drinking ways. Not that there was a part of him that wished he'd stayed on the _Pearl, _of course, certainly not, not one tiny, miniscule, infinitesimal, insignificant bit…_

"I have new orders for you, Admiral. You are to accompany Captain Jones and make sure he follows all my orders. If not, you are not to hesitate the slightest in stabbing his heart."

…_was there?_

"Yes, my Lord."

'_It doesn't matter anyway, does it?'_

It wasn't like in Tortuga, where he spent every minute awake wishing for his old life back. It couldn't be.

'_There's no room for regret. Push it out, James, just like you have all your damn life' (only he didn't think damn)._

Yes it was. Only now, there was no going back.


End file.
